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Hoschton tax plan draws fire

Residents of Hoschton blast council's proposal

Posted: Saturday, November 22, 2008

By Merritt Melancon

HOSCHTON - Residents of this small Jackson County town are protesting city leaders' plan to levy a property tax, and two police officers resigned in part because the city is too cash-strapped to pay them, according to a city councilwoman.

More than 100 Hoschton residents packed a city council meeting Thursday to express disgust with a proposal to levy a city property tax, the first municipal property tax in three decades.

Council members have proposed a 3.25-mill tax rate on properties inside the city to help cover a $70,000 2009 budget deficit. Although tax bills would not hit mailboxes until December of next year, residents said Thursday that the council's timing in proposing the new tax couldn't be worse.

"If we all are having to tighten our belts (due to an economic downturn), then the city needs to be tightening its belt," said Sandie Romer, a former city councilwoman. "If that means cutting back on people, cutting back on time - than that's what we need to do."

City officials anticipated that revenue might take a nosedive in 2009, but they didn't realize how drastic that drop might be when they created their budget for next year.

They have been able to the fund city operations through business taxes and fees and fines since the 1970s. But, when the national economy slumped this summer, that revenue shriveled and is not expected to rebound next year, Mayor Bill Copenhaver said.

Council members crafted the city's 2009 $785,000 spending plan in May and June based on projections that were "very optimistic," Councilman Tom Walden told residents Thursday.

"The whole world turned upside down since we made those projections," Copenhaver said Friday.

Residents floated a few alternatives to property tax: Cutting spending, selling town property, organizing a town raffle, collecting scrap metal for recycling.

"No one here wants to talk about a projected tax increase," said city resident Kelly Gary. "We're opposed to any kind of property tax, and I hope y'all will be able to take that into account and balance this budget by cutting spending, not by taxing the residents."

Some residents urged city leaders to institute a hiring freeze in the town's seven-officer police force, even though not replacing two patrolmen who resigned earlier this week would shrink the force by nearly one-third.

Those officers had new jobs elsewhere, but Councilwoman Theresa Kenerly said the officers wondered whether the city could continue to pay them.

"I believe that those officers lost faith in us," Kenerly said. "They didn't get the raises they needed for the past two years. We asked them to stop driving their patrol cars back and forth from home, and we asked them to start dry-cleaning their own uniforms. And there were other small things that led them to believe that they needed to resign."

In addition to the town's projected operations budget, city officials are also fighting to balance the city's $1.2 million water and sewer department budget, which is separate from its operating budget. Without new customers tapping in and current customers cutting back on water use, city officials expected the 2009 budget would fall $450,000 short if they did nothing.

They cut that deficit to $200,000 in a two-hour work session Thursday by scrapping plans for about $150,000 in water system improvements and cutting judiciously from other parts of the budget.